International Women’s Day 2021 – Choose To Challenge

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on 8 March. It’s a global day marking the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women - while also representing a call to action for accelerating gender equality.

The theme for this year is #ChooseToChallenge, and from challenge comes change. At Shoosmiths we believe we can all choose to take action for equality, we can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements and collectively, we can all help foster an inclusive workplace.

To mark International Women’s Day the firm’s Balance network coordinated a lunchtime panel discussion focused on the #ChooseToChallenge theme. Panel members (Shoosmiths Chairman, our Non - Executive Director, a Partner and 3 Associates) discussed what choose to challenge means to them, and answered questions from colleagues on topics including career progression and working ways.

We also invited colleagues to show their commitment to challenging inequality, calling out bias, or questioning stereotypes, by getting involved on social media – taking a photo of themselves striking the #ChooseToChallenge pose.

On 24 March 2021 a further lunchtime webinar will take place bringing together several of the various female communities Shoosmiths represents, including Women in Finance, In Her Shoos (Shoosmiths women led networking initiative) and Sphere (Shoosmiths initiative supporting female founders and venture capitalists within the VC space).